Gov. Tom Wolf was presenting his first budget proposal Tuesday, and lawmakers are waiting to see how much the new governor wants to spend.

Some Republican legislators say they have heard rumors of billions of dollars in new spending, and state Senate President Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review he expects a "radical tax and spend proposal" from Wolf, a Democrat.Some Republican lawmakers already are taking steps to try to limit the growth of state spending in the future.State Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, has reintroduced his Taxpayer Protection Act, which would require fellow lawmakers to follow a prescribed formula when determining how much to increase spending each year.The legislation would not call for cutting spending, but would limit the growth of state spending to either the average change in personal income or the average inflation rate plus the change in state population.State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Beaver, has taken the Taxpayer Protection Act a step further, calling for an amendment to the state Constitution that would bar legislators from repealing spending limits with a majority vote."I believe that protecting the taxpayers with a constitutional amendment that can't be changed according to the political climate will safeguard them for years and years and years to come," Bartolotta said.Under former Gov. Tom Corbett, Republicans spent the past four years trying to limit the growth of state spending, but that's no guarantee under Wolf. His first budget proposal looks like it will be a mix of tax cuts and tax hikes, but there's no clarity about whether one will outweigh the other.Even before increasing spending, Wolf is going to have to propose a way to dig out of a $2.3 billion deficit he inherited from Corbett and Republican lawmakers who used several stopgap measures to balance the budget.Jeff Sheridan, Wolf's press secretary, said the governor does not support the Taxpayer Protection Act and argued the "same old solutions" won't solve the state's problems. The previous budget, a $29 billion spending plan, contributed to a credit-rating downgrade."The status quo isn't going to work anymore. The status quo got us into the hole that we're in," Sheridan said.Wolf has kept much of his proposal under wraps. That includes publicly releasing a spending figure.Democratic leadership in the state Senate said they haven't seen it, but brushed aside the notion that Wolf is looking to ramp up spending by as much as $10 billion, as some Republicans have said they have heard."We'll know more tomorrow," state Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, said Monday.Wolf would not have to approve Bartolotta's proposed constitutional amendment, but it would still be a heavy lift. The General Assembly must pass it in two consecutive sessions and then send it to voters for approval. That would take years.If it became law, the Taxpayer Protection Act would use any surplus to pay down pension obligations, add to reserves and reduce the personal income tax rate. Thirty states already have spending controls, Bartolotta and Folmer said.Folmer contends that state spending has grown more quickly than taxpayers' ability to pay. He noted that state government spends about $920 a second and about $2,276 a year per person."As government spending, borrowing, and taxing continues to grow, the burdens on 'We the People' continue to rise," he said in a statement.